To optimize the performance and operation of modern computer networks, network operators routinely use network probes to monitor network traffic as well as measure end-user experience by calculating performance and quality parameters in real-time. These parameters include, but are not limited to, bit rate, jitter, packet drop rate or bit error rate, and packet latency. However, the enormous, and increasing, amounts of data transmitted over wired and wireless networks at high data transfer speeds, particularly with the introduction of the 10 gigabit (“10 GbE”) networking standard, present a challenge to real-time monitoring of network performance.
As the future of technology gears toward an all-IP network, the number of available over-the-top (OTT) applications is expected to increase. An OTT application is an application that uses a data channel provided by an Internet service provider (ISP) to connect to the Internet instead of using any special data handling features or network services offered thereby.
In accordance with conventional technology, OTT application data is sometimes routed over a commercial wireless network via a virtual private network (VPN) tunnel (which involves the tunneling of original IP packets inside outer IP packets in an encrypted fashion). A VPN tunnel provides additional transmission security to OTT application data, which is especially helpful to OTT applications that lack end-to-end encryption on their network connections.
Quality of service (QoS) refers to a set of performance characteristics by which a commercial wireless network is expected to convey data traffic to and from a client (quality of service (QoS) control mechanisms are applied to both the wireless and wireline components of a commercial network). Specific performance characteristics may include throughput (e.g., data quantity transmitted per unit time), latency (e.g., time delay between transmission and receipt of data), loss rate (e.g., frequency by which a commercial wireless network fails to deliver portions of transmitted data), jitter (e.g., a measure of variance of other characteristics), etc.
Currently, there are no efficient techniques to identify and process OTT application data, primarily due to an encrypted nature of transmitted IP packets. Hence, a successful means of quickly identifying data related to various OTT applications, including OTT applications transmitting data over a VPN tunnel, without parsing an encrypted payload is needed.